Fame (2009)Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
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An updated version of the 1980 musical, which centered on the students of the New York Academy of Performing Arts. |
Fame (2009)Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
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An updated version of the 1980 musical, which centered on the students of the New York Academy of Performing Arts. |
Nicholas Nickleby (2002)Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
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After the death of his financially replete father, Nicholas Nickleby and his family travel to London to seek assistance from his father’s older brother Ralph. Taking an immediate dislike to his nephew, Ralph employs Nicholas under the sadistic Mr. Squeers and his interminable wife, owners of a boys’ school in northern England. In the meantime, Ralph seeks to use Nicholas’ beautiful sister Kate as a ploy to influence his investors. Discourse forces Nicholas to flee the school with the crippled Smike, an orphan with no memories of his former life before he was brought to Dotheboys’ Hall. On their journey back to London they meet up with Vincent Crummles and his acting troupe, befriend Ralph’s good-hearted secretary Newman Noggs, and ultimately rise over adversity. |
Anna and the King (1999)Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
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This is the story of Anna Leonowens, the English schoolteacher who came to Siam in the 1860s to teach the children of King Mongkut. She becomes involved in his affairs, from the tragic plight of a young concubine to trying to forge an alliance with Britain to a war with Burma that is orchestrated by Britain. In the meantime, a subtle romance develops between them. |
Gone with the Wind (1939)Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 |
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Scarlett is a woman who can deal with a nation at war, Atlanta burning, the Union Army carrying off everything from her beloved Tara, the carpetbaggers who arrive after the war. Scarlett is beautiful. She has vitality. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie. Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, the day the Civil War begins. Rhett Butler. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie. |
Food, Inc. (2008)Friday, December 11th, 2009 |
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The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences. Many of the changes are based on advancements in science and technology, but often have negative side effects. The answer that the companies have come up with is to throw more science at the problems to bandage the issues but not the root causes. The global food supply may be in crisis with lack of biodiversity, but can be changed on the demand side of the equation. |
King Kong (1976)Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 |
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The owner of the oil company Petrox Corporation, Fred Wilson, invests all his possessions searching oil in an unexplored island. The vessel leaves Surubaya, in Indonesia, with the stowaway Jack Prescott, who wants to protect an ape called Kong. While traveling, they find the castaway Dwan in the middle of nowhere in a rescue boat in the ocean and bring her on board. The group finds that the island is inhabited and the local natives worship a huge gorilla called Kong. They abduct Dwan to offer her in a sacrifice to Kong. The crew hikes into the jungle trying to rescue Dwan. King Kong falls in love with Dwan and protects her against a huge serpent. When Fred finds that the oil in the island is not ready for exploitation, he decides to capture Kong and bring him to New York for exhibition. In the middle of a show, King Kong escapes, bringing panic to the locals. |
Waking Ned (1998)Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 |
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Jackie O’Shea, a resident of the tiny Irish coastal village of Tully More, discovers that one of his neighbors has won the lottery - the question is, who? It takes some doing, but Jackie figures out that the lucky person is none other than his new best friend, Ned Devine. Unfortunately, it turns out Ned is in no position to collect the jackpot, which totals almost 6.9 million Irish pounds. So Jackie and his real best friend, Michael O’Sullivan, try to figure out a way to share in Ned’s good fortune - after all, Ned would want it that way. But things get a lot more complicated than either Jackie or Michael could have anticipated. |
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
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Based on the well-known English legend, Robin of Locksley is a noble who is forced to become an outlaw when Prince John the usurper tries to take the throne from his absent brother. He flees to Sherwood forest where he gathers together his Merry Men and is called Robin Hood. He begins to rob the rich and give back to the poor, the townsfolk that are heavily-taxed by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Meanwhile he still has to defend the throne, and woo Maid Marian. |
Captain Blood (1935)Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
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The quintessential swashbuckler. Irsih doctor Peter Blood is wrongly sentenced to deportation and slavery to the Caribbean. There he amuses himself with insults at DE Havilland. He plans an escape and now seeking vengeance forms an alliance with the French buccaneer Rathbone. However during their glorious piracy they capture DE Havilland and Flynn’s feelings are betrayed when he challenges Rathbone over her |
Ben-Hur (1959)Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
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When Prince Judah Ben-Hur hears that his childhood friend Messala has been named to command the Roman garrison of Jerusalem, he is thrilled. He soon finds however that his friend has changed and has become an arrogant conqueror, full of the grandeur of Rome. When Judah refuses to divulge the names of Jews who oppose Roman rule, Messala decides to make an example of him and sends him off as a galley slave. Through fate and good fortune, Judah survives the galleys and manages to return to Jerusalem in the hopes of finding his mother and sister, who were also imprisoned, and to seek revenge against his one-time friend. |